Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-18
State AFFAIRS.
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had a talk with Hon. James n. Browning
8! since he came here. He said he would
! take neutral ground, that there were
ebout forty lawyers in the House and the
balance were Grs1gers, and that Judge
Willis stood aboEt as much show as 3
stump tailed bull N fly time"
In Justice to myself and the members
composing the HoGse, / say, sl-r that
made no such declaration to Mr..
/ Nelson or any one else. remember of
having had several conversations with
Messrs. Nelson and Goodnight about this
case before the charges were preferred
sgainst Judge Willis. NJ. Nelson is a
cattleman, having large ranch in the
Panhandle. and IS one OF
the parties indicted for illegally
incInsing public school lands a.
the January term of the Do1ley County
| District court in lSS6. Before this pro
ceeding was instituted against Judge
/ Willis Mr. Nelson came to me and insist
/ ed that | should defend Judge Willis and
/ do what could to clear him. | declined
to do 50 and gave es my reason that had
: been concerned as counsel in several Ct
the cases tried before Judge Willis,
and that it would look AS if was trying
! to cover up something if | took stock in
it; that was perft city willing for the
/ public 10 know ali about my connection
with the cases, and therefore | would
| take neither SIDE. Mr.. Nelson asked me
what | thought of the chances for
/ Judge Willis to come clear if
al investigation WIS had. | told him in
substance tnat could not tell, that most
of the members Of the House were
strangers to me, that did not know how
/ they would act on such matter that
ordinarily men from other portions Of the
state were more or less preludiCed
| against the Panhandle, because of
/ so many newspaper reports of lawless-
| ness in that region that if these
men were like great many coming from
/ their portion Of the state and all the
facts were proved in the case, Judge
Willis would stand about as much show
10 come clear as stamp-tailed bull
would in fly time. | intended to convey
no such idea as Mr.. Nelson's
pUrpOrted testimony would be construed
( to convey. do not believe there is a
single member on the floor of this House
who would decide this case upon personal
prejudice. | believe them to be fair men.
| have all the sine maintained Il neutral
ground in this case, because Judge Willis
is my neighb0r and thu Judge of my dis
trict, and because, as before stated, of
my connection with some of the cases
| tried before Judge Willis and upon which,
TO large extent, this investigation is
based. Strong efforts have been
made to bllldoze and force
me to take sides in this
controversy, but have persistently re-
fused 10 do it, and | still intend to take
no side while the matter is being investl-
gated. l will not be bUildozed into
doing anything that l don't want to do.
There is not member on the floor of
this house that can rise from his seat
and truthfully say that l have ever ap-
preached him directly or indirectly upon
the subject of the Judge Willis investi-
cation. Ga the contrary, when they
have spoken 10 me about if, l have in
variably evaded them and given no opin-
ion or expression whereby they could
tell how | stood upon the question.
CAPITAL CULLINGS.
DR.. CraniilI addressed the members
of the Legislature in the hall of the House
tonight. He bitterly denounced the high
license bill now pending before the House
and asked the Legislature to submit o
prohibition amendment TO the people.
The Senate committee on pepitentiaries
had the bill to limit the number of con-
vets to be hired out on plantations under
consideration tonight.